So the point is that Obama racked up trillions helping women like Brittany? What was her status under Bush? Nobody is suggesting yanking funding for her but money to her isn't why we're a few trillion extra in the hole under Obama.

This is absurd. Obama's use of a retarded girl to counter Romney's 47-percent argument is a complete non sequitur. Althouse acknowledges as much, but goes on to say, in effect, that she doesn't care. Why? Because she's a woman. Which is even more of a non sequitur.

Just vote for Obama already. Waving the bloody shirt of an exploited retarded girl makes you look, um, retarded.

Without using your brain evidently. Voting with your vagina or hormones is an insult to not only other women but to the brain you claim to be using.

I am a woman and I vote. I decide my votes by examining the evidence, researching the issues, determining who is trying to fool me, fuck me, pull the wool over my eyes, sell me the used car that is a lemon. I vote based on what I analyze is not only best for ME but what is best for the country, the economy and what will be the best policy. I DO not vote based on sentiment or how hormonal I might be at any given time of the month.

@Jack - Given the state of the Obama Economy, it's more like going "full retard". Any you should NEVER go full retard.

Ann - you're a woman, but you're also a mother. Don't you care that another 4 years of Obama could do almost irreparable damage to the US economy, causing decades of unnecessary pain to younger workers?

Brittney has more to fear from the Obama death panel. Not that you care, but this coy litte dance with Obama is turning me off. Vote for him already. I quit your blog in 2008 because of it and it was a couple of years before I read it again. There are plenty blogs in the sea.

Hello. My name is Chip Ahoy and I am part of Romney's 47%. I cannot help myself for I have Down syndrome which forces me to be acutely aware of politics and to focus on Democratic talking points and express them articulately wherever possible even though I suffer tremendously with common spas slkjkiwil smslsm ms of lsa'dflk control la l ' lkslkjs <--see? it happened again.

Jack Sparks, "Obama exploits a retard" sounds offensive to many people. Some even don't like the phrase "mentally retarded" at all. It's an evolving language; we have to keep changing the words we use to refer to members of ethnic groups...

But I'm not aware of "retard" ever being anything but an epithet. Stop it.

Can anyone take note that Obamacare has a goal of aborting every fetus with Down's syndrome, so that none are ever born? this is close to being achieved in Europe. And what kind of treatment will Down's syndrome adults get in the death panel deliberations?

Did it occur to anyone else that Brittany is uncommonly articulate for a Down's sufferer? Her diction, style, and punctuation are more sophisticated than the average college graduate of 2012. I guess the school system in Mechanicsburg is topnotch!

Government programs should be in place to help the Brittanys of the world. But, sadly we are spending far more money than we have to take care of Sandras of the world as well. We are $16 trillion in debt and when the economy goes really south the Brittanys, who need the assistance, will be more severely affected than the Sandras who really don't.

Please, you may want to reconsider excusing your vote by saying you are bad at math rather than you are a woman.

Maybe Brittany realizes that allowing herself to be used as a political prop in the giant soap-operatic set-piece that is the Obama campaign might get her exempted from the standard treatment mandated under "Obamacare" for people like her.

Oh, don't be naive. It was Ronald Reagan who started sitting people down near Nancy for his SOTU speeches, people who had jumped into icy water to save others from drowning and the like. We're all props. Shakespeare I ain't, but c'mon. Get off your high horses.

Brittany and probably her parent(s) composed a pretty good letter. Take it how you like. She's not a piece of furniture. You don't know what she thinks, and if you think you do and should be able to adjudicate her ability to judge, then you aren't a small-d democrat, or a small-r republican.

I've been struggling to understand why Obama leads Romney by 9% with women. It seems clear that by any measure other than fund-raising, his performance as President has been substandard.

It is certainly clear that if Democrats are allowed to continue their spending policies, our children and grandchildren are screwed.

His foreign policy is contributing to the ascendency of al Qaeda and other Islamic jihadists and the result of that for the US and Israel is potentially infinitely more tragic than "Fast and Furious" which killed dozens, maybe hundreds, of Mexicans.

However, after reading Professor Althouse's recent blog posts it is beginning to dawn on me that these things may not be significant to a majority of our female voters.

@Bob EllisonI am aware of the connotation of "retard." I am using it to illustrate how disgusting it is that Obama would exploit a woman with Down's Syndrome to score the basest of political points. And to illustrate how facile Althouse's feigned outrage is.

Other than Reagan/Carter, this is the most momentous election in my lifetime. That an otherwise-intelligent woman like Althouse approaches it with the mentality of a 13-year-old girl voting for 8th-grade class president makes me sick. She is acting retarded and I'm calling her on it.

As a father of a boy with spina bifida, I know there is a lot of crossover of concerns for people that have Downs Syndrome and people that have spina bifida. (For starters, most of them are aborted these days of the "Why have an inconvenient baby?" mindset.)

My biggest concern is that if Obamacare isn't repealed soon, the companies that make the medical devices that keep my son alive (adjustable CF shunts, etc) are going to say the hell with it, or at least not pump any money into R&D to improve the devices. (

Maybe I should have my son "write" a manipulative letter to Obama asking why the president is trying to hurt his quality of life.

Freder Frederson said "Why is that? Romney condemned the entire 47% of the populace who doesn't pay income tax as refusing to take responsibility for themselves."

No. Romney merely observed the obvious: there is a large minority that has disincentives to support his candidacy. Don't you think that's the case?

He also suggested that people in that condition, taking more than they give, will tend to care less about what works for society at large and more about what they get for themselves. This is obvious, especially to liberals. Not every individual acts that way, but aggregate groups do.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is she complaining about high implicit marginal tax rates?

I really want to make lots of money and have a hot tub someday, but SSI subtracts my paychecks from my SSI benefits, so I don’t have much to put into a savings account.

I am now working for a store, folding clothes and doing returns. I like my job a lot! I make $4.98 an hour and I am allowed to work 25-30 hours a week (I have paid $542.72 in federal, FICA, state, and city taxes this year as of August 31st). I just got my own apartment and share it with another girl like me. I get to pay rent now ($325 a month) and pay for my telephone and cable because I like the Disney Channel.

tiger said "...if she does it must be extremely mild for her to write such a letter..."

Forgive me for being pedantic, but this is personal, because I have a son with Down Syndrome. There is no "mild" form of DS. You have it or you don't.

I think I know what you were saying. The DS community speaks of "high-functioning" people with DS. Some with DS also have severe physical problems. It affects different people differently, and one of the happy discoveries of this tragic condition is that the people with DS tend to be, as a general rule, among the most likeable and joyous people on the planet.

To the extent that there are people working against the selective abortion and after-birth neglect of Down Syndrome children, they do tend to be conservatives. George Will wrote frequently and forcefully on this subject in the early 80s.

There was a child ("Infant Doe") born with Down Syndrome, and with a frequent complication, an alimentary tract blockage that would, uncorrected, cause the child to starve to death. People rushed forward to adopt the baby; surgeons offered to do the operation gratis; but the parents said no, and the baby starved.

Then there was the Phillip Becker case, and ... well, you could always read this.

I think I know what you were saying. The DS community speaks of "high-functioning" people with DS. Some with DS also have severe physical problems. It affects different people differently, and one of the happy discoveries of this tragic condition is that the people with DS tend to be, as a general rule, among the most likeable and joyous people on the planet.

I've observed this as well. I've also observed difficulties that make it very hard to believe that a Downs person could write a letter hitting all those precise political points.

Country is going to hell in a hand basket. we are supposed to get emotional by some hypothetical that a lying campaign puts out. How are these stories different from the other story they put in an ad, the man claiming Romney killed his cancer ridden wife? What are they saying using this down syndrome kid that Romney would rather neglect her to death? Garbage -- and this supposedly intelligent professor is warning us that it might have effect on women and they will vote for Obama. The women are stupid if they think Obama is better than Romney in taking care of these people.

Brittany and her parents are lucky. My niece with DS will never work. And she could never write a letter to any candidate. Well, maybe I shouldn't say never. But after 21 years, the prospects for her working are slim.

Matt. A dear friend's son has spina bifida. He is now in his late thirties and lives somewhat independently. He has been an incredible gift. I hope that all of the technologies remain in place to help your son.

Ann is either going loopy, or playing with her readers. I vote playtime.

On the merits, can a party and administration that effectively encourages the abortion of 90% of babies with down syndrome conceivably gain through the use of a down syndrome supporter? With this media, the answer is, horribly, yes.

Palladian said "I've also observed difficulties that make it very hard to believe that a Downs person could write a letter hitting all those precise political points."

I agree, in general. I remember a girl in my high school who had the highest GPA for a while, despite her never showing up to class, apparently due to infirmity, and despite her turning out to be not all that and a bag of chips when the infirmity withered away.

I favor judging people based on what you know and can observe. It's unlikely that a person with DS would write such a letter. But maybe she did write it.

That makes it easier to say "you're a money-grubbing leech on society", if you think that's the case, and sometimes it is.

FWIW, I do believe those few who have said everyone assuming Ann's position by her tag on this post may be jumping to unwarranted conclusions.

garage mahal said...

mere four years ago they would have chastised the mother for not aborting her.....if mom was a republican running for office

This zombie lie has always been one of the more disgusting zombie lies.

The name Trig ring any bells?

Freder Frederson said...

Mrs Palin noted that his "board" would levy judgment on her son the way the Spartans did and the savages at NHS do today.

My god, two lies in one sentence. There is no basis in fact for either of the assertions made in this sentence.

Really?

OK, let's go through it. There will be boards to ration care - they already exist.

The Spartans vetted their newborns. From Wiki (I know, but it's a quick quote and we all saw 300), "The Gerousia then decided whether it was to be reared or not. If they considered it 'puny and deformed', the baby was thrown into a chasm on Mount Taygetos known euphemistically as the Apothetae".

As for the NHS, there was a plethora of stories about 2 months ago how the NHS was allowing terminal patients to die without food or water.

But this could (and maybe should) escalate into a really embarrasing back and forth. There are a sizeable majority of downs people born into ardent pro-life families, because they're the one's most likely to reject the abortion option pushed on them after an amnio diagnosis. I'm sure you could round up hundreds of willing parents, siblings and friends of people with down's for an effective "affective" commercial asking what the IPAB would think of funding their lifelong medical needs. Would a 50 year old person with Down's Syndrome make it on a Sibelius kidney-transplant list? I'd give one to my aunt in a heartbeat.

But this could (and maybe should) escalate into a really embarrasing back and forth. There are a sizeable majority of downs people born into ardent pro-life families, because they're the one's most likely to reject the abortion option pushed on them after an amnio diagnosis. I'm sure you could round up hundreds of willing parents, siblings and friends of people with down's for an effective "affective" commercial asking what the IPAB would think of funding their lifelong medical needs. Would a 50 year old person with Down's Syndrome make it on a Sibelius kidney-transplant list? I'd give one to my aunt in a heartbeat.

Romney's "47%" statement was unartful - to say the least. But you cannot rationally think he doesn't care what happens to people like Brittany. It would be antetheical to the way he has lived his life.

Professor,Would it injure your sensitivities as a woman to witness a born-alive aborted Down’s syndrome baby dying alone in a dirty laundry room, without any medical care or human contact? I can supply a link if you are interested in reading this gruesome story. As you know, our president approves of denying medical care to born-alive aborted babies.

Now, how dumb was Romney's statement. Plenty dumb. Subjects him to this and other unconsionable attacks by Obama.

Romney must have a good answer for the 47% on Wednesday. It has always seemed simple to me. "I did not say it right, but I was trying to refer to the fact that I thought 47% of the voters were so much in favor of bigger and bigger government that they would never vote for me. Now, I think that if the American people honor me with the office of President and I get to work day and night to help 100% of Americans, that 47% will be significantly smaller next time because we all working togehter will make America better for everyone - then use examples]

If he does not have a great answer on the 47% issue, he is guilty of political malpractice and probably deserves to lose.

Possibly more ironically than they know. In one of C.S. Lewis's novels there is an entity called the National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments. Let's just say that the N.I.C.E. isn't especially, well, nice.

Why does everyone think Althouse read that and felt supportive of Obama? I didn't get that from this post. Maybe I'm missing something.

I agree that I wouldn't necessarily jump to that conclusion. And insofar as I somewhat identify or have identified ideologically/ politically with Althouse in the past, I would argue against it (but I've recently realized that that identification or sense of likeness might be much more erroneous than I thought).

The reason why IMO the "supportive of Obama" interpretation of the text is plausible, is the "All right, [...] but" in "All right, National Review's The Corner, but I found it deeply affecting".

Abstracting from all political interpretation, just in terms of textual interpretation, I read that kind of phrasing (all right,... but...) as a limited concession but overall an objection, overall a conclusion against rather than in sympathy with the addressed POV.

It is possible that Ann is using "persnalized" stories to point out that some of these ploys launched by either side can resonate with certain so-called "voting blocks." The Limbaugh fugue can be hyped as racist because it featured unfavorably a black woman. The Brittany letter can be hyped as a sob story. Rational rebuttals, while very correct, are not always effective in response to an emotional pitch. Perhaps Ann is laying the groundwork for reprising her 2008 experience, or perhaps she is trying to illustrate the political impact of these things.

I also don't know what Althouse meant by what exactly she found affecting.

Care to clarify, Professor?

And, by the by, when I think 'Democrats' and 'Down syndrome,' I think about 90% of suspected cases being terminated. It takes a set of brass balls for Democrats to use people with disabilities to score cheap and dishonest points when they are the ones fighting tooth and nail to legalize/justify/applaud/normalize abortion of babies with disabilities.

phx said... LOL! I seriously never saw so many concerned people commenting on something they only pretended to read!

The letter said:P.S. My mom and her friend helped me write this.

PHX, there is a difference between "helped" and wrote if for her. The sentiment expressed in the letter is deeply, politically cynical. I've known Brittanys - this letter just doesn't ring true. It was obviously written FOR her.

And people like you, and like Ann Althouse, allow themselves to be manipulated by it. Or encourage it because you think it manipulates others.

Conservatives would not cut off help for the Brittanys of the country. But, driving our economy into ruin will make life harder for the Brittanys.

If you haven't seen it yet, Pulitzer winner Michael Ramirez perfectly captures the Obama voter

Here's the trouble for you Republicans, IMO. Ramirez's cartoon is how you most of you guys really do think of the 47% - complete disrespect. Ramirez is a cartoonist so he's off the hook. But if you listen to yourselves day in and day out on Althouse, it's the way most of you think of us.

The problem for you is that attitude then gets easily tied to Romney. And you lose independents and undecideds in droves.

Democrats do it too, but many of your Republicans have raised disrespect to an art level.

It is SOP for the welfare [administration] community that whenever a legislature passes legislation to tighten up welfare requirements, they find a quadraplegic war veteran with seven kids and his wife has cancer, who somehow fits within the legislation, prepare eviction papers on the family and call all the TV stations to come on down and film the proceedings as the sheriff's deputies put the family out on the sidewalk.

The politicians hurriedly run for cover and rescind the legislation or otherwise declare it dead and to be ignoreed, and the welfare officials chuckle, give high fives, and say "Well, I guess we taught those damn politicians a lesson this time!"

I didn't find it all that effective but I think the target demo is definitely the distaff.

On the other hand, I don't necessarily buy into the outrage of impropriety on the right either. Seems a little heavyhanded for something that doesn't come out and accuse anyone of anything. This isn't Mitt Romney's likeness wheeling the kid's ass off a cliff, after all...

I'm more inclined to be persuaded by the violent death of Christopher Stevens and the dishonest incompetent State Department who virtually served him and a list of Libyan US supporters up to a terrorist attack and then tried to blame it on a you-tube clip. On 9/11.

I am the mother of an almost 22-year-old special needs daughter. She has a developmental delay, mild conductive hearing impairment, epilepsy, and lupus. She will never work.

I am afraid for her after I'm gone. I even wonder at her ability to stay on her epilepsy meds if resources are scarce... Since she'll never be a "productive member of society" I can see the death and health panels deciding that resources spent on her medication could be "better spent elsewhere".

Funny that they didn't use a letter from that guy who is living on disability as an adult baby...

I am a woman and I vote, but not on schlocky appeals to emotion.

Can I just say how much I hate that we're supposed to take these syrupy anecdotes and vote based on them? Romney was not talking about people like this lady, although many people with disabilities manage to live productive lives. I grew up across the street from a man who had disabilities and he worked sacking groceries for 20 years and I respected the hell out of him for it.

Cons don't want the gov paying for "takers.". The community should voluntarily take care of those who can't help themselves. It seems like the LDS are especially focused on taking care of their own, sans gov. At least winger radio told me that no Mormons needed any gov programs during the great depression. So folks will be fine after Rs cut gov spending and put the private sector in charge of all healthcare, just convert to the church of JC.

Whatever Romney meant by the term, Brittany is not a 47-percenter. Instead, if Brittany belongs to any percentage-based identity group, it is to the 10 percent of Americans with Down Syndrome who make it past the abortion clinic.

Society feels obligated to see that the Brittanys of the country are helped along their way - either privately or publically.

People who believe in small government don't really think 'its everyone for himself' as Obama would have you believe. They think big, bloated, ineffectual programs are just not the best way to help people. In trying to help the Brittays and the people who've had a bad setback (ie lost job), we've ended up allowing people like the Obamaphone-gal and (even worse) fraudsters, to belly up and help themselves to the taxpayers money.

The government makes NO distinction between those who cannot help themselves and those who could help themselves. They give our money to both groups equally.

Sad thing - the economic destruction that will come from overburdening the system will hurt the poor far more than any other group (and will create more poor).

Romney's statement was stupid, since he had ought to at least suspect he would be taped, and I think also confused.

The context was how he was planning to win the election and whose votes he would go for in order to win. He was probably right that as things are, at least 47% are going to vote Democrat no matter what, so he needs to get to at least 47.05%, and in the right states to win the Electoral College.

Maybe half of that 47% vote Democrat because of the welfare programs; the others because their great-grandpappy rode with Bobby Lee, or whatever.

If "handpouts" have nothing to do with the Democrats' strategy for winning this election, why is Pigford II still proceeding and growing? Why have Secretary Vilsack of the USDA put forth a call for "Hispanics" and I think, American Indians to apply for another Pigford-like program that Congress apparently have funded for them to the tune of $1½ billion?

Sad thing - the economic destruction that will come from overburdening the system will hurt the poor far more than any other group (and will create more poor).

Yes! This is key. One of the things that I care most about in this election. But I don't fit the image/ stereotype of "Republican" that Democrats (including, it seems, sometimes Althouse) have in mind.

Hahaha. Right. I doubt Brittany, having Down Syndrome, spends all day tuned into Democratic politics. It's like, ok, so, she can follow national politics with enough sophistication to project her situation into the consequences of certain policy choices, but she can't write a letter without help? Horse-shiiiiit. If Brittany exists at all, her "mother and her friend" were totally behind it. Brittany probably has no idea this letter is out there right now.

This is a step below writing letters on behalf of kittens. This is theatrics. A pure appeal to emotion devoid of any factual basis. Should we enlist Trig Palin to respond? Lord.

The whole letter sounds contrived. "I'll be 26 on October 3rd!" Was her mom like, "Hmm, this sounds too grown-up. How can we make her sound more retarded? Don't retards like birthdays? Balloons and such, you know? Ok perfect."

What the hell? What is this shit? WHY THE FUCK IS ANN ALTHOUSE LETTING HER VOTE HINGE ON FICTITIOUS DOWN SYNDROME GIRLS?!

Good God I wish I had a campaign to run. I could play this idiot like a fiddle.

This is sad and indicative of what the leftard will do to promote their rancid ideology. She may be a 47%'er, but if she is legit, she clearly has real needs and in contrast to the kind of person Romney is, do you honestly believe that he is the kind of person with known and unknown displays of compassion that he meant this person is a parasite or a leech or a person that won't for him?

The levels to which people have conflated the 47% statement is only indicative of the intellectual dishonesty that leftards display on an hourly basis. If you are a leftist or a liberal you are a waste of space for believing this bullshit.

Here's a link to a doctor writing on the effect of Obamacare and how treatments will be denied. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/07/03/this-is-your-life-under-obamacare/

We aren't going to find out directly how Althouse intends to vote or how she does vote. Deal with it.

But I must admit my blood freezes whenever Althouse says that some Obama ad appeals to her or some Romney ad puts her off. Why these posts? Here's my theory. Remember that Professor Althouse lives in Dane County, in Madison teaching at UWM, deep among the Kool-Aid drinkers, so she is super aware of Democratic reactions. Perhaps she chooses to blog about these reactions as her own because at some moments they are her own. I mean she does live in a virulently Democratic area. A Dane County judge has just invalidated Scott Walker's reforms - that's what it's like there. Maybe she hears these remarks at parties she goes to. She tosses them out to see what people will say in the wider world.

Or maybe she is Charles Johnsoning but then how could she write about liberal bias in the press?

Also, if this girl with Down syndrom could follow the media fresnzy around 47% issue and write such a cogerent argimentative letter, she can work as well.

The matter is that, with IQ at around 70 at best (which is the tops for Down syndrom), she most probably could not. My bet is that his letter is fiction, as much as any Obama's abvilities, except prompt teleprompter reading, and producing sloppy smile for likability; that is when his jaws are not too tightly clenched, from permamnent irritation.

"So I wonder, who was the éminence grise behind Brittany's letter, one of her family members or friends, or someone on Obama's campaign staff?"

Yes, I wonder, also.

Sorry for the cynicism, but try to find examples of such writing among people with Down’s Syndrome."

Exactly. I've dealt with many people with Down's and there is some variation in the severity of mental retardation (sorry, Brittany) but that letter does not look like a Down's patient's production. There are milder example of mental retardation but Down's is about the lower 1/3 of the scale.

The key comment in the column is about her being in the 10% (of Down's cases) that made it past the abortionist.

althouse, lets not forget what many on the left said about Sarah Palin keeping a Down's syndrome baby. Didn't keep you from voting for Obama, even though you're a woman and all.For all the talk about evil repubs, it's dems that will abort these babies and not let them into the world. So, frankly, I don't want to hear the abortion is murder but I'm all for it person saying she will get all weepy at the idea of the Down's syndrome babies losing funding because of heartless repubs.

It's a real risk for one to put their trust in the state to provide for a Down child. There are all kinds of terrible examples of supposed beneficial states that start out providing welfare, and then end up doing horrible things to handicapped individuals (i.e. Germany/Sweden, etc).

The better policy is for the state to create an environment so that the people prosper enough to provide for these citizens without the brutal hand of the state. IN the end the state will never really love your child or your relative. Why trust them....

This may have already been said, but if we continue to spend money at the rate that Obama is spending, we won't have the money to pay for the safety net for people who really need it. People like Brittany.

rhhardin, I was reminded of the words of Oscar Wilde: "One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing."

Who dares to take advantage of a disabled person in this way? They ought to be strung up by their thumbs with piano wire. It's on the level of Jay Leno's repulsive segment Jaywalking. Condescension should not be a celebrated value of a presidential candidate. Romney's condescension is rightly condemned, but Obama's is a sign of his immense virtue, as if he has some sort of common touch.

To be a Harvard educated lawyer once meant something good. Nowadays, all it means is that at some point you will be entitled to run for the Presidency, in the hopes of letting the people choose between you and a fellow alum to decide which weak-tea version of America the rest of us get to live in for the next four years.

I wonder how Brittany would feel if she heard Rahm refer to enemies as "retards" or Maureen Dowd and Al Gore when they claimed Republicans had an extra chromosome. Those liberal are so kind hearted towards the disabled.

Romney and the Republicans have no intention of removing the safety net for people who can't provide for themselves, however, that net is becoming so stretched with the growth of government and entitlements people who truly need aid will be denied it so government workers can attend lavish getaways and everyone has an Obamaphone.

I wonder how Brittany would feel if she heard Rahm refer to enemies as "retards" or Maureen Dowd and Al Gore when they claimed Republicans had an extra chromosome. Those liberal are so kind hearted towards the disabled.

Romney and the Republicans have no intention of removing the safety net for people who can't provide for themselves, however, that net is becoming so stretched with the growth of government and entitlements people who truly need aid will be denied it so government workers can attend lavish getaways and everyone has an Obamaphone.

Jesus, Ann. I have become a loyal reader over the last few years, but if you vote for Barry again I am not sure I can take it. I understand that women are going to decide this election but women's issues are not going to mean s--t if we don't get this economy growing again. Barry is more interested in class based justice than actual justice (not a single perp walk in four years). If you insist on seeing this through a class-based lens then his policies are hitting hardest those people he claims to want to help the most. This is inevitable and will continue and grow worse. Don't vote for the faculty Marxist! Please! (And, yes, this is a threat to delete the Althouse link from my Google home page.)

P.S. you KNOW Romney has not written off "the 47%", just complaining about the difficulties of appealing to them. It was a stupid comment, but the guy's actions demonstrate he is a deeply compassionate man.

They say in politics you can't be too cynical. As a corollary to that, I would add that in appealing to women voters you can't be too manipulative. Some time back I was in a restaurant--OK, bar, but I was eating there-- when Obama came on the TV and delivered a eulogy to the little girl who was shot in Phoenix. He talked about her now "puddle jumping in heaven". I swear to God, those were the exact words he used: "Puddle jumping in heaven." I looked around the restaurant. No one was barfing. The women looked tearful and deeply moved. His words had pierced their hearts....If you think this letter won't work, you're a high functioninng Asperger patient and will probably forget to vote on election day.

85% of babies identified with Downs Syndrome by prenatal testing are aborted.

I wonder how many pictures of cute girls with Downs were focus group tested before they found the one that would make the biggest emotional connection with women. I am a tiny bit surprised she isn't holding a puppy.

I can't believe this didn't just lead to eyerolling, even on the Obama campaign site the comments are not all pro-Obama,